Multiboot flash drive with several ROSA editions

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Want to have a single flash drive able to boot several editions of ROSA? Sergey Zhemoitel provides a set of instructions on creating a multi-boot flash drive with several ROSA editions using grub4dos.

As an example, we will setup a flash able to boot 32bit and 64bit images of ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE. We assume that /dev/sdX is a device corresponding to your flash drive.

  • Install grldr.mbr to flash MBR:
dd_rescue grldr.mbr /dev/sdX
  • Create two partitions using fdisk or diskdrake:
    • /dev/sdX1 - 200 Mb
    • /dev/sdX2 - the rest of the device
  • Format partitions:
    • /dev/sdX1 - ext2 (grub4dos)
    • /dev/sdX2 - ext4
  • Copy grldr and menu.lst to /dev/sdX1
  • In /dev/sdX2, create two folders for our ISO images:
mkdir -p rosa/kde/x86_64 rosa/kde/i586
  • Unpack ISO images to corresponding folders
  • Edit menu.lst and reboot.

menu.lst should look like the following:

default /default

title ***** ROSA Linux KDE R2 x86_64 ******
root

title ROSA install
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/isolinux.bin
kernel /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/vmlinuz0 root=live:UUID=40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image live_dir=/rosa/kde/x86_64/LiveOS rhgb splash=silent logo.nologo install vga=788
initrd /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/initrd0.img

title ROSA Live
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/isolinux.bin
kernel /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/vmlinuz0 root=live:UUID=40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image live_dir=/rosa/kde/x86_64/LiveOS vga=788 desktop nopat rd.luks=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 noiswmd splash=silent quiet logo.nologo
initrd /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/initrd0.img

title Verify and Boot ROSA.Desktop.Fresh.R2.2012.x86_64
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/isolinux.bin
kernel /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/vmlinuz0 root=live:UUID=40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image  live_dir=/rosa/kde/x86_64/LiveOS rhgb vga=788 splash=silent logo.nologo rd.live.check
initrd /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/initrd0.img

title Install ROSA Desktop.Fresh R2 2012 in basic graphics mode.
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/isolinux.bin
kernel /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/vmlinuz0 root=live:UUID=40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image  live_dir=/rosa/kde/x86_64/LiveOS rhgb vga=788 splash=silent logo.nologo install xdriver=vesa nokmsboot install
initrd /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/initrd0.img 

title Rescue ROSA Fresh R2 2012 x86_64
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/isolinux.bin
kernel /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/memdisk
initrd /rosa/kde/x86_64/isolinux/sgb.iso


title ***** ROSA Linux KDE R2 i586 *****
root

title ROSA install
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /rosa/kde/i586/isolinux/isolinux.bin
kernel /rosa/kde/i586/isolinux/vmlinuz0 root=live:UUID=40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image live_dir=/rosa/kde/i586/LiveOS rhgb splash=silent logo.nologo install vga=788
initrd /rosa/kde/i586/isolinux/initrd0.img

title ROSA Live
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /rosa/kde/i586/isolinux/isolinux.bin
kernel /rosa/kde/i586/isolinux/vmlinuz0 root=live:UUID=40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df rootfstype=auto ro rd.live.image live_dir=/rosa/kde/i586/LiveOS vga=788 desktop nopat rd.luks=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 noiswmd splash=silent quiet logo.nologo
initrd /rosa/kde/i586/isolinux/initrd0.img

Note: the following parameters are obligatory:

  • root=live:UUID=40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df
  • live_dir=/rosa/kde/i586/LiveOS

the former specifies a partition where the unpacked image resides, the letter points to a folder with squashfs.img file.

UUID can be obtained using blkid command:

# blkid 
<...>
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="grub4dos" UUID="74e94dfa-6b1d-48ec-96bd-d96c66e55400" TYPE="ext2" 
/dev/sdc5: LABEL="flash" UUID="40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdc6: UUID="2013-11-29-20-39-56-00" LABEL="ROSA.FRESH.KDE.R2.i586" TYPE="iso9660" PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sdc7: UUID="2013-11-29-17-24-42-00" LABEL="ROSA.FRESH.KDE.R2.x86_64" TYPE="iso9660" PTTYPE="dos"

Here we can see UUID of our partition with ISO images - "40af22cf-3bab-48f4-841b-9d4fffdd87df".

[ List view ]Comments

Very nice :) Is it possible to add persistent storage? Thanks.

Not yet; currently we are working on persistent storage support and hopefully ROSA Image Writer will get such possibility soon. But then we will have to combine this technology with multiboot flash.

awesome I got fresh on 32/64 bit on the same flash-drive, I'll test if works with LTS Thank you

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